


tripping over you

by CeruleanWind



Category: Death Note (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Drug Use, Fluff, Kissing, Light has a gay panic bc of it, M/M, Mutual Pining, Near is just really pretty, Oh yeah and they do acid, Pre-Relationship, Recreational Drug Use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-16 20:53:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29706411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CeruleanWind/pseuds/CeruleanWind
Summary: L introduces Light to a friend of his, Near. However, Light doesn't expect Near to be a full-on junkie.Rated M for use of hard drugs (LSD). Read at your own risk.
Relationships: Near | Nate River/Yagami Light
Comments: 4
Kudos: 6





	tripping over you

**Author's Note:**

> so uh i have no excuses for this. why i wanted to write a college au where light and near go on an acid trip, i do not know, but i quite like how it turned out. i hope you do too!

“What’s that?” Light snaps out of his daze to focus once more on his roommate and best friend, L. “What were you saying?”

L sighs in exasperation. “I said I want to introduce you to a friend of mine. Do you want to meet him?” he asks impatiently. He noticed Light has been spacing out a lot recently.

Light pauses to think, stretching out on his bed and staring up at the ceiling. “Maybe. What’s he like?” Light doesn’t want to meet yet another annoying person—dealing with Misa-Misa is already more than he can take.

“Well,” L begins, trying to find the right words to describe this person, “he’s quite similar to me, honestly. If you find _me_ annoying, well, I won’t introduce you to my friend in that case.”

Light sits up, fixes his gaze on his best friend once more, and says, “Fine. Let’s do it.”

Within seconds, L whips out his phone and sends a text, presumably to this friend of his. Light raises an eyebrow, curious as to what exactly is going on here. “So, uh,” Light begins, still extremely confused, “what is this gonna be? Like, a date, or…”

“Maybe,” replies L, typing away at his phone. “What do _you_ want it to be?”

“I don’t know!” splutters Light, cheeks reddening. “I haven’t even met him!” He crosses his arms defensively before continuing, “But I dunno. If I like him, maybe it’ll go further.”

Silence hangs over the two of them for a few minutes.

“He’s asking if now’s a good time,” L says absentmindedly.

Light jumps to his feet in shock. “Now?” he almost shrieks. “Fine, fine. I still have to get ready, so I’ll be a few minutes.”

-

Even though he was somewhat prepared, Light still doesn’t know how he got into this situation. He’d be meeting one of L’s strange friends anytime soon—but wait, where is L even taking him?

“Where are we going?” Light asks after walking in silence for a few minutes.

“N’s place,” L answers simply before clarifying, “The guy I’m introducing you to.”

Light decides not to question it.

At last, Light and L stop in front of a beautiful townhouse. It’s still part of on-campus housing, but Light doesn’t even want to _imagine_ how much this costs.

“It’s fine, you can go in,” L urges, playfully shoving Light in the direction of the front door. He then turns back and walks in the opposite direction, leaving Light to stand on the porch alone.

Light reaches to ring the doorbell, a strange nervousness burning in his stomach. Why is he this nervous? N is just a friend of L’s; he can’t be _that_ scary!

He waits a while out on the doorstep. Right as Light is about to reach for the doorbell for the second time, the door swings open, revealing who Light presumes is N.

“You must be Yagami Light,” the person in the door says. “My name’s N. Or Near, if you want to call me that.”

Light can only stare at Near in shock. Near is _really pretty_. His soft, fluffy-looking hair frames a pale, unmarked face, and he’s clad in all white. He almost looks angelic. Light does notice a few similarities between Near’s and L’s appearances: they both have the same terrible posture, the same smooth, pale skin, and the same slim frame.

Near beckons for Light to enter the house, and Light does, removing his shoes before following Near into the house. The decor in the house is objectively quite strange; there are delicate structures such as match towers and card houses everywhere. There’s a large pile of dice on the floor in the living room, a half-built dice structure beside it.

“So,” begins Near, sitting down on the floor and continuing to build his dice structure, “L has told me a lot about you. I’m excited to finally meet you.”

Light, unsure of where to sit, tentatively takes a seat on the floor on the other side of the structure, where he can curiously observe Near. “I wasn’t really prepared,” Light admits with a chuckle. “This house is huge! Do you live with anyone else?”

Near pauses to glance up at Light before resuming his task. “I live alone,” he replies in that gentle, level tone of his. “This is supposed to be shared amongst four people, but I got special permission. My friend Mello comes over sometimes, though.”

Light doesn’t know what to say, so he stays quiet.

“Anyway,” Near continues, “I was planning on getting high this afternoon. Want to get high with me?”

“Using _what_ , exactly?” Light asks, narrowing his eyes. That was a rather forward question for Near to ask.

Near gets up and goes into the kitchen. Light guesses that’s where Near keeps his drugs. “I have pretty much everything you could want,” Near speaks up from the kitchen, glancing back at Light over his shoulder, “but I was planning on using acid today. Want some?”

Light gets up and walks into the kitchen to peer over Near’s shoulder. There’s quite a _selection_ in this particular kitchen drawer. “I’ve never done anything like that,” Light says. “Would that be dangerous for me to do?”

“Nah. I have less potent ones.” Near fishes through the drawer and pulls out a bag of small pinkish-red tablets. “These will be fine for you. Just take one and don’t do anything stupid.”

Although Light is understandably nervous, he finds himself a bit excited to try this new thrill. It would be more of a bonding activity than anything else, right? Light and Near put the tablets on their tongues at the same time and wait for them to dissolve.

“So now,” Near begins, going back into the living room and resuming building his dice structure, “we wait for it to kick in. Trust me, you’ll know.”

Light makes himself comfortable on the couch next to where Near is sitting. “Do you do this kind of stuff often?” he asks, raising an eyebrow in curiosity.

Near carefully places one more die onto the top of one tower. “I do,” he answers, “but it’s much more fun when I have someone to do it with.”

“I’m glad I was able to provide that sort of assistance, then.”

-

All Light can see, hear, smell, or touch are colours. Nothing feels real, time is nonexistent, and the entire house looks like a kaleidoscope. Light somehow feels out of breath, but he doesn’t remember moving—that is, until Light notices the ethereal form of Near in front of him. Light struggles to focus, but the world still seems blurry.

He realises, then, that they’re dancing—Near’s arms are loosely wrapped around Light’s neck as they spin around to the music. The music! There’s music playing! All Light can hear is vague sounds and colours, but Near looks so happy—well, as happy as Near can look—so Light goes along with it regardless.

Light reaches out, wanting to do _something_ with his hands, but Near ducks away at the last second, catching Light’s hand and pulling him elsewhere.

The ground sways under Light’s feet. He stumbles along, focusing solely on the coolness of Near’s hand against his. Light hears a warbled form of Near’s voice, but he can’t make out anything Near is saying. Light is much more concerned with how the walls seem to be closing in on them.

Suddenly, Light is acutely aware of a hard surface against his back—maybe he fell on the floor? Wait, no—Light can see the blurry form of the bed a few metres away. It must be a wall that he’s leaning against. Near is right in front of him, too, and he seems to be _glowing_ in the sunlight.

Amongst all his racing thoughts, Light becomes conscious of a cool press against his lips and realises, with a shock, that Near is kissing him. Light practically melts into it, reaching up to cup the side of Near’s jaw. Time seems to slow down even more. Rainbows tangle in Near’s hair. Light closes his eyes and attempts to focus, attempts to feel _everything_. Near is pretty; Near is smart; Near is more than willing to try new things. Light doesn’t want anything more than that.

Light flips them around and pushes Near to the wall instead, taking control of the kiss. Through his dizzy, incoherent state, Light can vaguely make out small details, such as Near’s flushed cheeks, his gentle touches, his soft hair.

If this was the only thing Light could have for the rest of his life, he’d take it.

-

“I’m coming in!”

Light wakes to a voice sounding from the front door area. He’s lying on the carpet in the living room, Near in his arms, and Light attempts to remember just _how_ he got here.

“Near!” the voice yells again. “Are you with Light? He didn’t come home last n—oh, there you are, Light.” L emerges from around the corner, his eyebrows raised in surprise. “Near got you high yesterday, didn’t he?”

Light frees himself and gets to his feet, now aware of his aching head. “Ugh,” he groans, putting a hand to his forehead. “Yeah. Yeah, we got high off our asses.”

L chuckles upon hearing that. “I knew it,” he says, fixing his gaze on the sleeping Near on the floor. “He’s such a junkie. I told him to go easy on you. What did you guys do—shrooms?”

“Acid,” Light replies hoarsely, going to the kitchen to grab a glass of water. He downs the entire thing in a few gulps and sighs. “It was actually pretty fun, though.”

“Well, Near probably likes you a lot if he invited you to get high with him,” L says matter-of-factly, offering Light a second glass of water.

Light takes the second glass and downs it as well. “Yeah, I’d sure hope so. I can’t be sure, because every memory of yesterday is really hazy, but I think we made out.”

L almost has to do a double-take. “Made out? Really?”

“I can confirm,” Near says from the living room. His voice is a little raspy, presumably from sleep. Near slowly gets to his feet and makes his way into the kitchen to join L and Light. “We had fun. Light did great for his first time tripping,” Near adds, flashing a tiny smirk.

“Well, I’m sorry to steal Light from you, but I’m forcing him to come with me to go grocery shopping,” L says, steering Light back towards the front door.

Light grins shyly and waves back at Near once he reaches the door.

Near waves back. “Bye, Light,” he says with a small smile. “Come back anytime.”

Once the door shuts behind them, L playfully shoves Light’s shoulder. “You idiot, Near totally likes you! You better go back!” They set off back towards the main part of campus, silence settling over them, until L says, “You’ll go back, won’t you? I’ll give you Near’s phone number.”

“Of course I’ll go back,” Light insists, cheeks reddening. “I really like him too.”

Light is always open to a little adventure and spontaneity in his life—in moderation, of course—and this is no exception. He’d be paying Near another visit very, very soon.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you very much for reading! you can follow me on tumblr @the-ultimate-oof if you so desire ;)


End file.
